It is customary to terminate multi-conductor cable, i.e., cable comprised of a plurality of discrete conductors with connectors, such connectors generally being referred to as either a plug or a receptacle. In either case, the connector is a body of insulative material having a plurality of conductor receptive channels therein, and an electrical contact disposed in each channel and to which respective individual ones of the conductors in the cable are electrically connected, as for example, by pressingly seating the conductor in the contact.
The introduction of flat multi-conductor cable which can be laid on a floor surface, covered with carpet tiles and used to power plugs and receptacles, has led to significant advantages in the physical construction and floor layout of commercial office buildings. In order to take full benefit of one of these advantages, the elimination of in-floor raceways or duct work which previously would have carried conventional power cable, it becomes desirable to also modify or replace other types of cables or wires which might have shared that duct work. Versions of such wire which could also be laid under carpet tiles would be the most desirable. One example would be the communication lines used for telephone, and for such purposes flat telephone cable is known. To terminate this flat cable, known types of connectors designed for and used with round cabled wire can be used. Termination to a known type of connector with flat conductor telephone cable presents no particular problem once the cable is stripped and the individual conductors are properly formed to be installed in the connector contacts. In fact, once cable preparation is complete, the typical flat telephone cable structure consisting of individual conductors placed at a fixed spacing and imbedded in a suitable encapsulating material should readily hold the prepared end so that installation in the connector would be easier than with other types of cable.
Regardless of the type of cable used, it is necessary to provide protection against the terminated conductors being dislodged from the contacts or broken by the manipulation of the completed cable assembly during installation procedures, or in other words to provide strain relief. Devices used to achieve this protection can either be separate restraining pieces or clamps, or they may be incorporated as a part of a hood or back shell used to cover the terminated connector. The prior art does not however provide for effecting strain relief in flat multiconductor cable at a location remote from the points where the conductors are connected with the contacts, with such strain relief being effected with resiliently yieldable strain relief force applying means adaptive to apply such force on flat cables of varying thicknesses.